UK carrier Virgin Atlantic will resume flights between London and Tel Aviv from September 25, a week ahead of the High Holydays, according to reports in the foreign media. Flights can be booked on the carrier's website, with connection options to the US.
Like British Airways, Virgin Atlantic will offer direct flights between London Heathrow and Tel Aviv with a brief stop for a crew change in Larnaca, Cyprus, although passengers will remain on the plane. It is still deemed to unsafe for crew to stay over in Tel Aviv. On the return leg the plane will fly non-stop from Tel Aviv to London. Prior to October 7, 2023 Virgin Atlantic operated two daily flights between Tel Aviv and London. From September 25, 2024 Virgin Atlantic will resume with only one daily flight. Virgin Atlantic will use larger aircraft on the route than its rival British Airways, which uses a narrow-bodied Airbus A321.
With its regular connections between London and New York, Virgin Atlantic will be hoping to capture market share from El Al, which has a monopoly on direct flights between Tel Aviv and New York. El Al recently added a flight on the Tel Aviv-New York route and all 280 seats were sold within three minutes. Almost no Tel Aviv - New York seats remain on El Al flights for the holidays, except on premium and business class, with return fares ranging between $4,500 and $7,500.
Over the past week Lufthansa Group, the largest aviation group, which consists of Lufthansa Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Swiss, and Eurowings, resumed its flights to and from Israel, after more than a month’s suspension. The group operates many flights to six destinations in Western Europe: Frankfurt, Munich, Dusseldorf, Vienna, Brussels and Zurich. Italian airline ITA has also resumed flights today with one daily flight between Tel Aviv and Rome. Other foreign airlines that have resumed flights to Israel include Ethiopian Airlines, Wizz Air, Bulgaria Air, Aegean, Air Europe, Iberia, and Tarom. On Tuesday Polish airline LOT also recommenced its Israel flights.
However, Ryanair announced that it would not resume Israel flights until the end of October.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on September 10, 2024.
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